Tavarius Williams: Is Alleged Dog-Flipper Up to Old Tricks?

It appears that our old friend, alleged dog-flipper Tavarius Williams, is back to his old (alleged) ways: Craigslist and other online classifieds are littered with Williams's ads selling puppies of indeterminate origin, and it has some in the animal welfare community aghast.

When we first wrote about Williams, a guy who, based on witness accounts and Facebook pics, sometimes dresses in women's clothes, he was accused of adopting a dog and then turning around and trying to sell it for $100. Concerned about where the dogs in Williams's recent ads came from, we decided to give him another call. He was less than cordial.

"Can I tell you something? Stop fucking calling me. That's my last time telling you. Do you understand?" he said before hanging up.

We decided to live on the edge and call back, trying to convey that, regardless of how Williams felt about us, people were concerned about where these dogs were coming from. For one thing, the ads posted with Williams's phone number are terribly inconsistent: two of the eight ads for a male lhasa apso posted on October 28 -- ostensibly for the same dog -- contain pics that appear to be entirely different dogs.

But all Williams would say to people's concern was, "Well, tell them to kiss my ass, and you too." When we tried to explain that that was a non-response, we got this: "Let me answer these questions for you: die. I'm giving you a warning....Don't take this as a threat, take this as a promise."

We would've expected a person charged with drug possession would be a little more cautious: According to Harris County District Clerk records, Williams was charged last August with allegedly possessing less than two ounces of marijuana. And while the Clerk's site lists the case as active, Williams assured us that the matter had already been settled and that it was someone else who possessed said weed, and not him. We called Williams's court-appointed attorney to get some more information and hope to hear back.